Oh, guess what?! I pruned my tree style hybiscus and took a chance with the short branches (tip pieces) and stuck them in the ground with some rooting hormone. Within days the leaves were brown and all looked grim. But, because I've gotten lucky with a fiddle leaf fig that I did the same thing to, I decided to leave them for a while (and because I was busy and it rained). I looked at them today and from a few feet away they still seemed rather dead-ish, BUT, on closer inspection...new little sprouts up and down the branch! Isn't that great?! I'm crossing fingers they continue to leaf out.